


Beach City High School

by Dramaticdragon



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: High School AU, Human AU, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-06-07 07:01:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 17,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6792289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dramaticdragon/pseuds/Dramaticdragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Originally on Dramaticdragon.tumblr.com)<br/>Human AU where they're all in high school! How original!!!! well Steven and Connie are like 4th grade but the main stuff is around the gems. Very long, several one-shots and also continuing storylines</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically true for all of this stuff: This is OLD. Well not that old but season 1 old! So A) my writing has since improved lmao and B) SOME CHARACTER TRAITS ARE INACCURATE. This is season 1stuff my friends, so a lot of the character building of season 2 hasn't happened yet lol. But still, its just a guilty pleasure High School AU, so enjoy it anyway

                [Chapter 1: Introduction]

* * *

 

                Beach City High School. A large school filled to the brim with at least a thousand personalities crammed into one building. Every day was an adventure (even the standardized tests), no matter who you were with. But we’ll only be following a few of these ‘crazy kids’ through their daily life. In 9th grade, the Freshman Class, was Lars, Sadie, Ronaldo, and Jenny. In 10th grade, sophomore, was Ruby, Sapphire, Pearl, Lapis, and Amethyst. In 11th Grade, Junior, was Peridot, Kiki, Jasper. And finally, Senior class had Garnet, Rose, and Greg. Throughout each of the following chapters, we will be following all of these teens and their miss-matched, knuckleheaded lives and hope for the best.

                Occasionally, we’ll get a short chapter with Beach City Middle School, with Steven, Connie, and Peedee.


	2. Chapter 2, Lasper: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Originally titled "The Bully and The Swimmer" on my tumblr.  
> Jasper, school bully, meets Lapis, school way-more-interesting-than-you-realize kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funtime reminder: this is older than my other stuff, so at the time all we knew of Jasper's and Lapis' personality was up to Jailbreak.

                [Chapter 2: The Bully and the Swimmer]

 

                Jasper Diamond was a school-renowned bully. She was in 11th grade, but it was a widely accepted rumor that she was held back and should have graduated by now. Her grades reflected that rumor, constantly failing tests. She was rude, loud and rambunctious. She didn’t care what anyone thought about her, and she always got what she wanted.

                Lapis Lazuli was a quiet, peaceful 10th grader. She was only 15 (turning 16 in only three months!) but she was already the captain of the swimming team, and had mastered any and all styles: Freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, you name it. She was smart, too, keeping her grades between B’s and A’s. She was kind, but quiet. Not many people knew, but she was actually a huge grudge-holder. She wasn’t exactly _bullied_ at Beach City High, but she was occasionally made fun of for her love of all aquatic life.

                Lapis tried to keep to herself without being too antisocial, sticking with her friends. Unfortunately, most of her friends had different classes, but she would have to deal with being slightly lonely if she still wanted to take her favorite class: Marine Biology. Jasper took the lowest level classes possible, but was still in normal progression with sciences, since it was the easiest to cheat in (Just how old was that teacher?!). Now she cheated her way into her next science class: Marine Biology.

                “Ugh, this is so dumb. Who cares?” Jasper mumbled to herself, skimming through their current chapter. After all, would she ever have to know that fish actually die on land from lack of oxygen? Maybe one day on some game show, but other than that it’s useless information.

                Across from her, a small, scrawny girl glanced up in frustration. Jasper didn’t give it much thought. Assigned seating sucked, especially when you don’t even know who you’re sitting with. The science tables were just lab tables, which held four students per table. She knew a little about the kid next to her, and vaguely remembered the one kiddy-corner to her. But who was this again? L.. L… Laney? Lora?.... Oh! Lapis! She remembered that because the ending sounds like ‘piss’. Lap-piss. That’s what she heard every time the teacher called her name. What a sucky name. Then again, Jasper sounds like a cat name more than a teenager. Oh well.

                As the weeks went on, Jasper noticed that Piss-Girl would be able to answer any question the teacher asked. She even knew facts that were in the book. If Jasper didn’t think that was utterly stupid, she would have respected her determination. After all, she knew every single wrestler to ever face the ring. So it must be like that for Piss-girl, just with boring fish.

                All was good for those weeks, Jasper cheating of Lapis easily, until it was project time. Jasper _hated_ projects. Why do them? We get enough work at school, why it home and do _more_.

                “It is a partner project,” The ancient, old-as-dirt teacher announced, “Whoever you’re sitting across from, that’s your partner. No complaining.”

                Jasper looked up and met eyes with Piss-Girl. It was clear from a mile away that Piss-Girl was disappointed. Jasper could have taken offense, but she understood Piss-Girl’s reasoning. After all, she didn’t care a lick about these dumb fish.

                “How about you do all the work?” Jasper mumbled, just loud enough for Lapis.

                She nodded.

                “Yeah, sure.” Lapis whispered back, her voice full of relief. She wouldn’t take an F because of Jasper.

                Jasper nodded, thinking to herself. _Her voice is kinda nice._

She soon shrugged off that thought.

                The weekend came, and Jasper got a call on her phone from an unknown number. She usually got her stress out by yelling at telemarketers, so she picked it up.

                “Hey, Jasper? It’s Lapis.” The voice over the phone said.

                “Lapis? How did you get my number?” Jasper asked, surprised.

                “Peridot gave it to me. I just have a quick question, then I’ll leave. How do you spell your last name? Like a regular ‘Diamond’? I’m making the powerpoint, so I needed to know.” Lapis explained.

                “Yep. D-i-a-m-o-n-d.” Jasper answered.

                “Okay, thanks! Have a nice day.” Lapis finished, hanging up.

                Jasper looked at her phone for a minute, then made an impulse decision. She clicked on the number obviously belonging to Lapis, and saved it in her contacts. She wasn’t exactly super popular, so her contacts weren’t very full. She saved in Lapis’ number, making the contact photo a fish.

                _Now back to business,_ She thought to herself, getting back to the punching back she was working on before Lapis called.

                _She really does have a nice voice…_

Sunday rolled around all too fast, and Jasper was bored again. She texted Peridot, but she didn’t answer. Great. There goes her main friend. The rest of her contacts that she was actually okay with talking to were her parents and cousin. That’s it. _Great_.

                _Wait a sec, I have Piss-Girl_ , She remembered, and scrolled through her contacts and found the fish photo. _Here goes nothing_.

                _Ring… Ring… Ri-_ Click!

                “Hello?” Lapis’ soft voice came through.

                “Hey.” Was Jasper’s only reply.

                “Um… Hi. Do you have a question about the project?”

                “Nope. I’m just bored.”

                “Oh…” Silence. “So why did you call _me_ exactly.”

                “Idonno,” Jasper shrugged, even though Lapis couldn’t see it, “I already called you, so might as well chat. You finish that project yet?”

                “I did, actually. We were assigned the Anglerfish. Did you know there is a type of anglerfish that has teeth so big that it can’t ever close it’s mouth? And its eyes are really far back so it won’t stab them out on accident! And…”

                Jasper soon zoned out, letting Lapis start her enthusiasm. She heard a couple of words, she wasn’t _that_ rude. ‘Gills’, ‘Dorsal fin’, ‘Prey’. Words like that. As she ‘listened’ to Lapis, her mind occasionally had a sentence flow through without her realizing. _Such a soft voice…_ It wasn’t until after Lapis’ entire rant that Jasper realized she was grinning surprisingly wide, just from hearing her voice. 

                _Crap. Now she wants a reply…_

“Yep, that’s _super cool_.” Sarcasm was Jasper’s closest friend, “I bet you could do a powerpoint on like every fish ever.”

                “Well, I guess I just really like fish…” Lapis’ voice got slightly quieter.

                “So when we go up to give our project, I assume _you’ll_ do all the talking?” Jasper chuckled to herself.

                “Well, I don’t know how much the teacher will like that, but I guess so.”

                “How come you like fish so much?” Jasper asked, genuinely curious.

                “Well, my parent’s always brought me to the Aquarium when I was little, and I love swimming, so I guess anything aquatic I’ll just love.” Lapis said, her voice getting slightly higher pitched with happiness.

                _Cute…_

“So like the beach, right?”

                “Yeah!” Jasper could practically hear Lapis nodding, “It’s really helpful that we all _live_ by the beach, too.”

                “I heard Greg was having a Beach party next Saturday, you going?” Jasper asked, thinking of the senior.

                “Oh, I didn’t even know about it.. I don’t think I was invited.” Lapis answered sadly.

                “No, it’s for everyone. Everyone in the whole school is invited, even from his little brother’s 6th grade class.” Jasper reassured.

                “Oh, well, maybe… I don’t really have a lot of friends, so I don’t think it’ll go over well.”

                “How about this- If I go, you go.” Jasper offered.

                “Huh? Why…?” Lapis asked shyly. Jasper herself didn’t actually know her reasoning, but some primal instinct in her just wanted to hear Lapis talking.

                “I ain’t exactly Prom Queen either. I think it’ll be fun. I heard Kiki was bringing a volleyball net and everything.”

                “Would that make us… Friends?” Lapis asked, her voice easily relaying her surprise and confusion.

                “We have each other’s number already, so why not.” Jasper shrugged.

                “W-Well…. Okay, I guess.” Lapis answered, her voice trailing off.

                “K, cool. Well, see you Monday.” Jasper finished, hanging up. She glanced in the mirror next to her bed, and realized her eyelids were dropping, she had a huge grin, and her cheeks were far redder than earlier.

                “Crap…” She muttered, “No way…”

                She quickly shook her head, getting all of _those_ ideas out of her head. This is some nerd she was talking about. Why did she even invite her to the party? Well, she didn’t _invite_ her, but you get the picture. She offered to go with her. Why…? Jasper’s head was running with ideas for excuses for herself, and settled on one: Peridot probably won’t go- she hates water- so Jasper needed someone to hang out with on the weekend. Yeah, that worked.

                Monday came as usual (despite the entire world willing it not to) and it was time for Jasper and Lapis’ project. It sucked having the last name ‘Diamond’, since D is almost always one of the first letters in the class, thus making her go first. Thankfully, though, Lapis was as passionate as ever, taking control of the whole PowerPoint. Jasper just leaned against the wall and watched Lapis and she used her hands to emphasize her own words. Occasionally Jasper would glance at the PowerPoint, and think about how much effort Lapis must have put into this. But she spent most of the time just staring at Lapis. Her whole body language showed how enthusiastic she was. All over some stupid fish. She finally finished, giving what seemed like the entire encyclopedia length worth of information over the Anglerfish.

                “Good job, Miss. Lazuli.” The teacher smiled, then looked to Jasper, “I hope you didn’t have to do the entire project by yourself…”

                Jasper gave the teacher the smallest glare, but was interrupted by that soft voice again.

                “No, Jasper helped me a lot with the PowerPoint.” She said. A horrible lie, since all Jasper did was spell her last name.

                “Really?” The teacher mumbled, not even attempting to hide the surprise, “Well, you two should be expecting a good grade soon.”

                “Thank you,” They both said, returning to their seats.

                A couple more students had to go still, so Jasper took this as an opportunity and pulled out a piece of paper.

                _You didn’t have to do that, you know. I’m used to F’s._

Jasper wrote, trying to make it legible (handwriting was never a strongpoint) and quietly passed it to Lapis. She read it quickly, then wrote back.

                _I know, but you listened to my whole fish rant, so that’s my ‘thank you’_ _J_

Jasper read the note once it was handed back, and quenched her smile quickly, not wanting to look stupid in front of people.

                _Even her writing it cute._ After all, it was cursive with a little curl for the dotted I’s. Even the smiley face was cute. Jasper once again felt compelled to continue the conversation, albeit a written one.

                _You busy after school today? We could hang if you want._

After reading, Lapis looked up to the ceiling, thinking through her schedule, then started writing again.

                _I think I’m free. Where would you want to go (also why?)_

Jasper had to think this through. Why? _Because your voice sounds cute and I want to hear it?_ No, that sounded unbelievable stupid.

                _Bored. Peridot is busy with some geek meetup. U seem cool I guess._

Once again she used Peridot as her unknowing scapegoat. She tried to make the last sentence as nonchalant as possible, too.

                _Well, okay. So back to question 1: Where? :O_

Another cute face, dammit.

                Jasper went through her mental list of cool places: Wresting ring, junkyard, movies, and Deadman’s Mouth.

                No, ew no, maybe, and another maybe. Well, probably not Deadman’s Mouth, it’s way too covered in moss lately. So the movies? No, that sounds like a date… She may think Lapis’ voice is cute, but she’s nowhere near _that_ level yet. Suddenly, a stroke of genius hit her. She had heard about those, what were they… Epiphany? Yeah, epiphany. She quickly wrote her answer and looked at it proudly at how smart she was, and passed it to Lapis.

                _Aquarium?_

Lapis held the note a little higher, jokingly hiding behind it and obviously trying to hide a huge grin (and failing), then nodded quickly, drawing a huge smiley face on the paper.

                _Too cute!_

Suddenly, Jasper had a quick though of panic- If she gets this cute at school at the mere _thought_ of an Aquarium, what would she be like there? Jasper was ready for an adventure, all right….

                The school day ended, and Lapis and Jasper met up at dismissal.

                “So how about we go home and get dressed and go? We’ll meet up there, it won’t take more than an hour obviously.” Jasper offered, to which Lapis nodded.

                “Sounds good!” Lapis said, her voice already rising with held back excitement.

                They thus went home and put on going-out clothes, and made their way to the Aquarium. Jasper, as she just now found out, lived surprisingly close to the Aquarium, so she got their first. Going-out clothes to her was just slightly less messy jeans and a clean, slick T-shirt. She even brushed her mass of hair. She waited by the fountain at the entrance, playing with her phone, occasionally looking up. On her third of fourth time looking up, she saw Lapis coming up from a small distance. She was wearing a cute blue sundress with white sandals.

                _Blue is_ definitely _her color…_ Jasper thought, her eyes widening at the cloud-of-cute walking toward her. She quickly brushed off the stupid expression, and stood up, putting her phone in her pocket.

                “Hey.” She said, greeting Lapis.

                “Hi, sorry it took me longer. I couldn’t find my good sandals.” Lapis admitting, a small smile creeping up her lips.

                “It’s cool, I just got here too. Ready to go in?” Jasper asked, motioning for the entrance.

                The ‘small smile creeping up her lips’ suddenly jumped into a full grin, as Lapis nodded enthusiastically.

                The duo went in, and went to the first exhibit: Clownfish and anemone and other weird looking coral. Jasper noticed there was other salt water fish, but the only one she knew was a clownfish, which she just referred to as ‘Nemo Fish’.

                “Look! An angel fish! And look at that one, a surgeonfish! Oh, and a Sea Butterfly! It’s so cute!” Lapis rushed, the words flowing out of her mouth almost as fast as the water in the tank.

                But as Jasper looked at Lapis’ raw excitement, it wasn’t just the Sea Butterfly she thought was cute.

                Lapis took some pictures with her phone, and Jasper could only assume she already had millions of pictures of the same fish anyway. They traveled through a bunch of the exhibits in a similar manner: Lapis led the way, her eyes beaming, and Jasper followed with significantly less enthusiasm. But at each exhibit, she spent more time watching the short girl gazing lovingly at the fish, than looking at the actual fish herself. But after a couple of the exhibits, Lapis’ pure joy got Jasper caught up a little, and she even took a couple pictures of the cool looking sharks herself. She even enjoyed listening to Lapis’ explanation of how the cookie-cutter shark could bit a hole through ships. That was pretty raw.

                Soon they got to Lapis’ proclaimed favorite exhibit: The Jellyfish.

                “Look at all of them!” She said, hardly above a whisper, as if she would disturb them if she was too loud.

                “They look pretty weird.” Jasper laughed to herself.      

                “Did you know there’s a species of deep sea jellyfish whose tentacles reach over 90 feet?!” Lapis announced, not even looking away from the water.

                “For real? That’s crazy…” Jasper whispered.

                “They’re all so amazing…” Lapis hummed, her voice soaking with love (pun intended).

                Jasper nodded slowly, her own pulse going slightly faster at how love-struck this short girl looked. She had to stop herself from saying anything embarrassing, though, so she just remained silent for a moment, letting Lapis gaze at the fish some more.

                “Hey,” Jasper chuckled, “Why don’t we take a selfie with them?”

                It was more of a joke offer, but it soon turned real as Lapis turned and nodded happily to Jasper.

                Jasper blinked, then quickly turned on her phone and got the camera App opened.

                “Ready? Smile!” She ordered, holding the camera out to get her, Lapis, and a couple Jellyfish floating around.

                _Click._

It came out great, and both Jasper and Lapis smiled as they looked at it.

                “Send it to me?” Lapis asked.

                “Sure.” Jasper answered, sending it to her quickly before the duo went through the rest of the Aquarium. Lapis’ happiness remained high as ever throughout the whole trip, even after they decided it was time to go and went their separate ways.          

                Jasper went home smiling, thinking about that cute little voice and its cute little owner.

                Neither of them knew it, but they both soon used their selfie with jellyfish as their wallpaper for a long time…

               

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in case you haven't figured it out, i used to ship Lasper like all hell. I still do a little but in a different way lmao.


	3. Chapter 3, Lasper: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lasper continues!

                [Chapter 3: The Bully and The Swimmer _part 2_ ]

 

                Jasper stared anxiously at her phone, poking it every time the screensaver started to come on. She started at the background, a selfie she and her new ‘friend’ Lapis took. She still didn’t quite know where they stood as of relationship. She was still a bully and only had one class with Lapis, but every time they see each other they smile and wave, and sometimes they’ll even walk together if their classes are in the same direction. Jasper was starting to _really_ enjoy going to Marine Biology. They passed notes on a near daily basis, and occasionally looking up and flash each other a knowing smile when one of them wrote a joke on the note. Were they friends? Jasper was never a master on the topic, so she wasn’t exactly sure. She knew for a fact she really enjoyed being around Lapis, and had a newfound protective nature over her. Occasionally some of the girls in Lapis’ grade would tease her for her hair, and Jasper would silently walk by and give them an obvious death glare, without Lapis knowing.

                She grumbled to herself, turning her music up louder. Lapis should have texted her by now. They made agreements to go together to Greg’s beach party, and Lapis was going to go to Jasper’s house first so they could get there at the same time. So she should have _texted_ by now, right?!

                Jasper sighed, staring still at the wallpaper.

                Lapis… She looked so cute in this picture, her eyes shining with excitement, and giving the camera a big toothy grin. Jasper was smiling too, but more at how cute Lapis looked as they took it. Her cheeks were still a little red from watching Lapis, and she hoped Lapis didn’t notice it, since she has a copy of the picture… Crap, what if she did? What if she saw the pink-cheeked bully and realized how she felt about her?

                _Wait…. How_ do _I feel about her?_ Jasper thought, thinking deeply. She was just contemplating whether or not they were even friends and now she’s thinking about levels past that? No, it’s gotta just be the soda she had earlier, the carbonation must be getting to her head. Yeah, that’s it.

                _Bing Bing!_

Jasper moved at nearly the speed of light to see the text.

                ‘ _Hey Jasper! Just left the house, and I’m walking to yours now! Hope you’re ready :P’_

_‘I’ve been ready. You just take forever.’_

Jasper chuckled to herself at her text. She stood up and took a quick glance at the mirror. She was wearing a red and yellow checkered bikini. It definitely wasn’t some cleavage-showing thong, but she still liked it. She was muscular, and was proud of them 99% of the time. The only 1% was in a swimsuit, when they looked so out of place. She took a deep breath, shoving any self-consciousness out the window. She straightened her back, standing proudly in front of the mirror. If anyone decided to make fun of her muscles, she wouldn’t be afraid to use them to prove them wrong.

                _Bing Bing!_

Jasper checked her phone again, completely forgetting about her private pep-talk.

                ‘ _I don’t take forever >:I i had to look super great lol jk :P’_

Jasper had learned a while ago that Lapis was a fan of emoticons. She also had a couple visions at her comment about looking ‘super great’. Uh oh, this might be a little difficult.

                _‘as an apology you better have brought me food.’_

Suave, right. But, hey, Jasper was a proud lover of food.

                _‘I knew you’d say that’_

With the text, Lapis sent a picture of a small bag of chips in her hand.

                Jasper smiled to herself, happy that Lapis knew her enough to expect that. Yeah, they were totally friends!

                A few minutes later, Jasper heard a knock at the door. She ran down, carrying her beach bag with her. She opened the door and froze at the shorty in front of her.              

                Lapis was wearing a bikini as well, except the bottom had the whole ‘skirt’ style instead of a typical bottom. The top and bottom matched with a white background and baby blue spots. It was absolutely and undeniably adorable.

                “You look nice.” Jasper mumbled, walking out the door.

                “Thanks, you do too!” Lapis smiled up, handing her the chip bag.

                “Sweet.” Jasper chuckled, opening it and shoving a huge handful in her mouth.

                “To be perfectly honest,” Lapis started, slightly quietly, “I’m a little nervous. I don’t usually get invited to big parties, so I’m kinda scared I’ll be out of place…”

                By the time she finished, her voice was nearly inaudible, and she was staring at her feet, both hands clung to her sides.

                Once again, Jasper’s protective nature turned on.

                “Hey, if anyone makes you feel bad, you tell me, ‘aight? I’ll ruff ‘em up for you.” Jasper smiled, giving Lapis a reassuring (albeit rough) pat on the back.

                She smiled slightly, looking up to Jasper.              

                “Thanks, but I don’t think they’d do it intentionally. Sometimes I just feel kind of… Trapped. I doubt that makes any sense, though.” She sighed.

                “Don’t worry about it, you got me, and I ain’t exactly and angel to be around.”

                Lapis laughed a little at Jasper’s reassurance, and Jasper smiled. Her laugh was also cute. Basically everything about her was, at this point.

                The two continued walking in comfortable silence, with Jasper still stuffing her face with chips. She glanced down at Lapis, and noticed her staring at Jasper’s stomach. She did, after all, have very noticeable abs. But Jasper was worried that Lapis thought they were strange or weird, and subconsciously sucked in her stomach a little.

                 The two reached the beach and Jasper threw away the now empty chip bag, and they walked up to the crowd.

                “Oh, hey, Lapis!” Pearl smiled, waving at her. Pearl was an all A student, so she shared a lot of classes with Lapis.

                “What’s up, Jasper!” Ruby waved. Ruby shared the passion in wrestling, so the two shared lunch conversations when a big match was about to come.

                The two smiled, both relieved to be welcomed in so quickly.

                The party was a lot of fun, Greg brought a huge cake, Kiki brought the net as promised, and a couple of others brought soccer balls or Frisbees. Jasper enjoyed the volleyball, since her sheer strength made it easy to spike the ball, and Lapis enjoyed swimming (which she did for the entire party). As the sun started to set, the group leaved person by person.

                “Ready to go, Lapis?” Jasper asked, wading out to Lapis’ inner tube.

                “Mhm!” She nodded, hopping off the tube.

                “It’s a little chilly.” Lapis mumbled as they walked to Jasper’s house. As it got closer to night, the temperature dropped rather quickly. She wrapped her arms with her tiny hands in an attempt to warm herself up.

                “Oh, I have an idea.” Jasper whispered, reaching into her bag. She pulled out a huge hoodie (well, normal sized for her) and handed it to Lapis.

                “Are you okay with me getting this wet?” Lapis asked, holding the hoodie out a little so her hair didn’t drip on it.

                “Yeah, it’s fine. That’s what I brought it for. I’m not really that cold.” She shrugged, nodding to Lapis. Actually, she brought it to hide her obscene muscles if necessary, but the occasion never arose. So now her giant hoodie has a new purpose.

                “Thank you, very much.” Lapis said, her voice slightly muffled as she put it on. Now, keep in mind that Jasper is a very muscular gal, and very tall as well. Lapis is one of the shortest in her grade, with small arms. The hoodie was practically a dress on her, with long sleeves to go with it.

                Now _that_ was really adorable. Jasper had to look away for a minute.

                “Since we’re getting to my house first, why don’t you just keep in and give it back Monday.” Jasper offered.

                “Are you sure?”

                Jasper nodded, this time looking at Lapis in her embodiment of cuteness.

                “Thank you, I’ll be sure to wash it.” Lapis added.

                “Nah, you don’t have to do that,” Jasper waved, “I barely do.”

                “Well, I’ll try to.” Lapis giggled, covering her mouth with the huge sleeve where her hands were.

                Jasper got to her house and waved off to Lapis, after double checking that she didn’t need someone to walk her home.

                When she got to her room, nearly avoiding an interrogation from her happily overbearing father, she checked her phone, looking at the row of new selfies she took with her _friend_.

                For some reason, Lapis seemed even more beautiful around water. There was a picture of them sitting on the rocks surrounding the beach, and a couple more of them messing around in the water. Her personal favorite was a selfie took by them as they laid down on the edge of the sand and got splashed by an incoming wave. Both of their eyes were shut tight, but their smiles were equally wide as they laughed at the wave splashing them.

Jasper sighed happily. She never had a group of friends to hang around with, and just looking at the picture with her laughing with her _friend_ made her stomach squirm with warmth.

                With her new wallpaper set in place, she decided to hit the hay. It was Saturday, and she usually staid up till midnight, but she decided all this socializing wore her out, so she’d go to bed. But not before sending a quick text to Lapis.

                _‘Night’_


	4. Chapter 4, Lasper: Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4, aka: things start getting really gay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bruh as i reread this i realize how gay i really am

Chapter 4 [The Bully and The Swimmer _part 3_ ]

 

                _‘Per, do me a favor. U have all the fancy brain dictionary junk, what does it mean when ur stomach feels weird when ur around someone and u really want to be with them even though they make ur stomach feel weird???’_

_‘First off: Brain dictionary junk is also known as SMARTS. Second, Jasper I thought you passed the sixth grade already. It’s called a crush. U really need to get out more’_

_‘coming from u that means a lot.’_

_‘exactly.’_

Jasper sighed loudly. As much as she wanted to say Peridor was no help, she was. She provided the exact answer Jasper _didn’t_ want her to send. There is no way on earth that she- the big strong bully- has a little sixth grader crush on _Lapis Lazuli._ Not possible.

                Then why does it make so much sense?

                Jasper shook her head angrily, grumbling loudly to herself.

                _Bing, Bing!_

Jasper moaned.

                “I thought you were done, Peridot…” She mumbled to herself, reaching to the bed stand to get phone. But it wasn’t Peridot. It was Lapis.

                _‘Hey, Jasper! You enjoying spring break? I know it’s only been two days but still :P I was wondering if u wanted to have a sleepover sometime? My parents are pretty lenient as long as u promise not to yell or break anything.’_

_‘Lemme check to make sure I don’t have anything coming up’_

Jasper knew she didn’t. She always spent spring break in her bed, resting. It was pretty nice, and only slightly boring. But she just used her ‘schedule’ as an excuse to take a deep breath.

                It had hardly been over a second before she had come to terms with her… _crush_ … and then said girl offered for a sleepover! Does she have some psychic ability or something? Jasper took a deep breath, and picked up her phone again.

                _‘im free. When? Tonight?’_

_‘Yeah sure_ _J do u want to just come over whenever? I’ll get my room set up.’_

_‘k. I’ll be over in like an hour I guess. Ill bring my own blanket n stuff.’_

_‘oh and swimsuit! I have a pool :D’_

_‘of course u do’_

_‘;P’_

Jasper took another deep breath as she put her phone down, she glanced across the room at her pajamas. Pajamas roughly translates to slightly larger T-shirt and messy sweatpants. Attractive, right.

                Jasper shook her head. Don’t worry about that. This is a happy, _friendly_ sleepover. Not some date or something.

                She grabbed those ‘pajamas’ and a pillow, blanket, swimsuit, and her toothbrush and toothpaste. She stuffed them all into a duffel bag and zipped it all up. She told her dad were she was going (mom was out at work), and set off. Thankfully, Lapis’ house was pretty close, so she didn’t have to walk all the way across Beach City.

                _Knock knock._

“Coming!” A muffled voice shouted from inside the house, then opened the door. Lapis stood there with a T-shirt with dolphins on it and jean shorts. Once again: _Cute_.

                “Come on in, Jasper!” She smiled, opening the door wider. Jasper walked in and looked around.

                “You have a nice house.” She mumbled.

                “Thanks, it’s a little small, but I like it.” Lapis giggled, “Come on, I’ll show you my room. That’s where we’re going to be for most of this, since my mom is _super_ clean and stuff. I hope that doesn’t bother you.”

                “Nope.” Jasper shook her head and followed Lapis into her chambers. It was exactly as Jasper expected. Blue walls with aquatic posters covering nearly every inch. Her bedspread was blue with little fish on it. It looked like the room of a kindergartener, but as long as Lapis was happy, Jasper would be too. She noticed that on the floor (the only thing _not_ blue) was a large blow up bed.

                “Sweet.” Jasper chuckled, jumping on the bed and laying across it. She was tall enough that her feet dangled off the edge a little. A common downside of height.

                “Is it comfy? I didn’t know if I filled it enough.” Lapis admitted shyly.

                “It’s great. I have one of those crappy spring beds, so basically anything is an improvement.”

                Lapis giggled quietly, than began the ‘tour’.

                “I have some movies over here, we can watch them in here if you want, but my family room TV is bigger. I have my computer over there, and a couple stuffed animals if you want to use them.” She laughed to herself at the last bit.

                “It’s not much, sorry.” She apologized.

                “It’s fine, don’t worry!” Jasper waved, scanning through the movies.

                “I’m noticing a pattern with these movies.” Jasper laughed, looking back up to Lapis.

                “Yeah, most of them are documentaries. I really like aquatic stuff, remember.” She shrugged.

                Jasper nodded.

                “Which is your favorite?”

                “Huh?”

                “Which of these is your favorite?” Jasper repeated, pointing to the movie stack.

                “Well,” Lapis began, crouching down, “I guess this one.”

                She pulled out one about the deep sea life, down where the sunlight doesn’t reach.

                “Well put it in, then.” Jasper smiled.

                “Are you sure you won’t be bored.”

                “I’m positive.” Jasper chuckled, pulling out her blanket and patting the spot next to her on the blow up bed.

                Lapis put in the movie and sat next to Jasper, who wrapped them both in a ‘blanket burrito’ and Peridot always called it.

                The movie started, and Lapis was already entranced in what Jasper could only assume was a frequently seen movie. Probably daily, from Lapis’ love of fish.

                A few minutes into the movie, Lapis’ back must have ached from leaning forward in enthusiasm, and she leaned back normally and rested against Jasper’s large shoulder.

                Jasper glanced down, surprised, her cheeks warming slightly. But Lapis didn’t even notice, she was so focused on the movie. Jasper relaxed again, looking back up to the screen. Even though she didn’t really care that much about fish, a couple of these weird looking monsters seemed pretty cool.

                By the time the hour and a half documentary ended, Lapis was leaning against Jasper’s shoulder still, with Jasper’s head resting above Lapis’. It worked really well, since it was not only comfortable, but hid her blush and funny smile.

                “Knock knock!” A sweet voice came from outside the room.

                “Come in,” Lapis called back, introducing her mom.

                “Hello, dear,” She waved to Jasper, “Well, girls, it’s time for bed. So go brush your teeth and get ready.

                “Yes ma’am.” Lapis answered for both of them, and her mom left.

                “Where’s your bathroom?” Jasper asked, pulling out her toothbrush.

                “Open the door and just look left, its right there. I’m going to brush my teeth too.”

                The two went into the bathroom together, brushing their teeth, and only made funny toothpaste noises a couple times. They went back into Lapis’ room afterwards.

                “I hope you don’t mind if I just change now.” Lapis asked, holding up a long nightgown.

                “Oh, go ahead,” Jasper mumbled, trying to make her voice as not-shaky as possible.

                “You can too, if you want.” She offered, pulling of her shirt quickly.

                Jasper had to evert her eyes immediately, pulling out her own pajamas and taking off her own clothes. She glanced up, and Lapis had already put on her gown (thankfully, to Jasper’s bloodflow), but Jasper noticed something. Lapis was staring at Jasper’s stomach again. Jasper looked down to make sure nothing was on her or something, but nope. Just stomach.

                “Is… Is something wrong?” Jasper asked, starting to worry that Lapis thought she looked freakish. Being self-conscious was a new feeling for her, that’s for sure.

                “Ah! N-No, you’re fine.” Lapis whispered, looking down and… Blushing? Jasper had to blink to make sure her eyes weren’t tricking her.

                “Um… Okay…” She mumbled, pulling her PJ shirt on, and well as her messy sweats.

                “Uhm….” Lapis whispered again, barely loud enough for Jasper to hear.

                “I think… I think your muscles look really nice…..” Lapis continued in a nearly inaudible tone, her face getting brighter with each word.

                The combo of Lapis’ soft voice, and well as blush, as well as the _content_ of what she was saying nearly sent Jasper into a frenzy.

                “You do?” She asked quietly, pulling up her shirt to examine her own abs. Were they that nice?

                “Mhm…” Lapis nodded shyly, still not making eye contact with Jasper.

                “Well… I think your voice is pretty nice, too.” Jasper admitted, scratching the back of her neck. She was never good at compliments, so she could only hope she wasn’t sounding like an idiot.

                “Thank you.” Lapis hummed with her always soft voice, then walked over and gave Jasper what she considered to be the softest, warmest hug of the century. Jasper’s shaky arms slowly wrapped around Lapis with a slight fear she might crush Lapis’ tiny build. Thankfully, though, she didn’t, and Lapis let go with all ribs in tact. She smiled up to Jasper, as if the hug did nothing to her. It was quite the opposite with Jasper, of course.

                “G’night!” Lapis smiled, climbing onto her kindergarden-esque bed, leaving Jasper to sit down on hers and do her best to remind herself that human did in fact need oxygen. Lapis clicked her lamp, turning off the light in the room, and Jasper covered herself with her blanket, all the way to her head. She rolled into a little ball on the small blow up bed. A small, bright red, grinning-ear-to-ear ball.


	5. Chapter 5, Jaspidot: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasper/Peridot starts!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jaspidot doesn't go as far as my Lasper does, mostly because we knew all of three things about Peridot at the time of writing this lmao.

                Chapter 5 [The Bully and The Nerd]

 

                “Per, you mind telling me just what you find enjoyable in this?” Jasper asked, eating a sandwich next to Peridot, who was working on her Programming homework.

                “It’s not something you would get, only smart people understand.” Peridot answered.

                “Wow.” Jasper grumbled, giving Peridot a glare that threatened to break her neck. But Peridot wasn’t scared of her. She never was. That’s why Jasper liked hanging out with her. She could be her rude self without worry.

                “Even if I tried to explain it, you wouldn’t get it.” Peridot shrugged, glancing over to Jasper.

                Peridot was a lanky school nerd, while Jasper over there was as beefy as they come.

                “Yeah, I know.” Jasper nodded, not really taking her intelligence (or lack thereof) as an insult.

                Peridot gave a small, small smile. Jasper had that effect on her. She didn’t like people, at all. Especially loud ones. But somehow fate had given her a crush on what could possibly be the loudest person alive.

                “So you have plans for the weekend?” Jasper asked, her voice slightly muffed by her jam sandwich.

                “I never have plans, remember?” Peridot reminded, still typing.

                “Wanna go watch that new action movie? The one with the ex-assassin and the spy?” Jasper offered, giving the most vague description of an action movie.

                “I don’t make plans for a reason,” Peridot replied, shrugging.

                “One day you’re gonna have to leave the Per-Shell.” Jasper huffed, using the nickname for Peridot’s laptop/phone/house. Basically anything that Peridot did more than talking to people was titled a ‘Per-Shell’ by Jasper. As much as Peridot said it annoyed her, she couldn’t help but laugh occasionally.

                “Whatever. I’ll go see a movie. Then I’m going right back home.” Peridot sighed.

                Jasper grinned, grabbing Peridot’s shoulder roughly and pulling her in.

                “Great!” She said loudly, getting the attention of a few kids in the cafeteria.

                Peridot rolled her eyes. Loud people.

                “So I’ll see you there, then!”

                The fateful Saturday arrived far too quickly for Peridot’s comfort. She didn’t want to go for many reasons. She would be in public, and she would be in public with _Jasper_. And with Jasper in a dark room, sitting right next to each other. This was just fated for disaster. She was easy to spot, in a huge black hoodie and long jeans. She was pretty pale, so why get any unnecessary sunlight?

                “Hey, Per!” The familiar loud, rambunctious voice called.

                Peridot looked over to Jasper, who was wearing a T-shirt with some wrestler on it and jeans.

                “Hey.” She answered, much quieter.

                “You ready to see some gore?” Jasper asked, patting Peridot’s back and laughing.           

                “Love it.” Peridot grumbled.

                Jasper just laughed some more and went in. They bought some popcorn, and went in just in time for the previews.

                The movie went just as Peridot expected- some ex-assassin was called back for some special mission with some super spy, there were guns everywhere, everyone died, and Mr. Ex-Assassin went home completely unscathed. Groundbreaking.

                But judging by Jasper’s expression, she actually thought it was a good movie.

                “Wasn’t that great?!” She asked Peridot as they walked out.

                “No.” Peridot answered honestly.

                “Ugh!” Jasper groaned, but all in good humor, “You’re so boring!”

                “And you’re so crazy.” Peridot retorted.

                “So why are you friends with a crazy person?” Jasper laughed, pushing Peridot lightly.

                “I ask myself that every day.” She lied. To be honest, she asked herself why she wasn’t more than friends.

                “Aw, whatever,” Jasper chuckled, putting an arm around Peridot’s shoulder, “I think you’re cool, even when you’re boring!”

                “Thanks.” Peridot said, giving Jasper the slightest glance of a smile, “I guess you’re tolerable.”

                “You know it.” Jasper smiled, ruffing up Peridot’s shoulder.


	6. Chapter 6, Mother Rose: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No shipping, just Rose acting as a mama to baby Steven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember friends! The only people related in this are Greg and Steven, since this is a 'everyone lives in highschool' AU lmao. Rose is just Greg's bae, and is kinda Steven's adopted mama

                Chapter 6 [Motherly Instinct]

               

                Rose Quartz walked home alone, after hard work with the gardening club. She loved all plants, and was happiest at the club with others like her. The only downside was that most of her close friends didn’t live close to her, so she walked home alone most of the time. To get to her house (which was closer to the big beach city hill than the actual city) she had to pass Beach City Middle School. The middle school got out half an hour earlier, so by the time she reached the school the kids were all gone. But evidentially today was not such a case.

                As she walked, she heard a muffled noise from a bush near the school.

                “Huh?” She mumbled, looking around. It sounded kind of like a sad cat, or something. She followed the sound to the bush, and peeked in.

                “Steven?!”

                In the bush, crouched in a ball of pity, sat sad, crying Steven. Rose’s long standing boyfriend’s little brother himself. Whenever she was with Greg, she always enjoyed having Steven around, too. She always felt a maternal bond to Steven, and Greg joked that in another universe, he and her were actually Steven’s parents. She knew that was a crazy idea (obviously false, too) but she agreed it would make sense.

                “Steven, what’s wrong?” She asked, stepping through the crumbled leaves to sit with him, worried.

                He sniffled lightly, clearing his throat so he could talk.

                “A… A couple kids in 7th grade were making fun of me because my favorite color is pink… They said I’m dumb…” He explained sadly, staring at his feet.

                Rose felt pity rush through her like a huge wave of the ocean. Steven was one of the sweetest boys she knew, and she hated that people made fun of him.

                “I’m sorry, Steven..” She whispered, rubbing his arm, “Try not to listen to them, they’re just jerks. And if it makes you feel better, pink is my favorite color, too.”

                He smiled weakly at the last part. Pink was obviously her favorite color, enough that she died her hair that color.

                “It still hurts…” He sighed, still in his ball.

                “I know. Bullies are awful.” Rose nodded, remembering her own Middle school experience. Did anyone like Middle School? Probably not.

                “Will it make you better if we go to FunLand together?” She offered, giving him a reassuring smile.

                He looked up from his ball, and nodded quickly.

                She smiled and stood up, holding a hand out to help him.

                “Thank you,” Steven whispered, wiping his nose with his sleeve.

                “Don’t worry. And next time someone bothers you, you tell me and I’ll get them!” She joked, patting her ‘muscles’.

                “Rose, I don’t think you’d do more than hug them.” Steven reminded, giggling to himself.

                She laughed with him, happy that she could help her favorite little sweetheart.


	7. Chapter 7, Pearlnet: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arguably the second longest storyline in BCHS, PearlNet begins!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny story: At the time of writing this, i didn't even ship Pearlnet. But i had a bunch of friends who had Pearlnet as their OTP so of course i was gonna write it. I shipped Pearl more with Amethyst, and shipped Garnet with herself. But needless to say, by the end of BCHS i shipped it haha

                Chapter 7 [A Pearl for Pearl]

 

                Pearl White was in 10th grade at Beach City High School. She was an all A student and studied constantly. High-maintenance and a self-proclaimed neat freak, Pearl kept everything she owned in its place. Everything could be planned out, and she kept it like that. She loved romantic ideas, from sweet novels to the thought of a romantic dinner by a river (although Beach City didn’t have any rivers), she loved anything romantic. Despite her love of love, she was always reluctant to start a crush.

                Garnet Love was a senior at Beach City High School. She was quiet and kept to herself, but not because she was shy. She just didn’t have anything to say. She had amazing grades, but no one ever saw her study. She just seemed naturally gifted at everything, from academics to sports (She was Basketball captain), and had a surprisingly organized fan-club. A few of the lower grade boys and girls that saw her as the ‘Perfect Senior’ would go to every basketball game of the year, even at far district ones. But Garnet remained by herself forever.

                Pearl was close friends with Sapphire, who was dating Ruby, who was one of Garnet’s best friends. So somehow through ‘friend of a friend’ type of situation, she was sitting with all three of them at lunch. She usually sat with Rose, but Rose wanted to sit alone with Greg today, so she sat with Sapphire. She wasn’t sure how welcomed she was, since both Garnet and Ruby were huge athletic figures, and she was a thin, weakly brain-head. But Ruby was surprisingly welcoming (a friend of Sapphire’s was a friend of hers, as she said), and Pearl assumed Garnet was too, since she didn’t say anything against it. Garnet was a senior, so Pearl didn’t have any classes with her, but she had seen here in the halls a lot. She had a full head of hair, that’s for sure. A large, oddly cubed afro rested on her head. Meanwhile, Pearl grew embarrassed at her measly Bob. Garnet also wore sunglasses, for some reason. Pearl assumed she just had really sensitive eyes. But looking at her from this close, she realized the combination of all of these traits made her look like the coolest person ever.

                “Hey, G,” Ruby started, “When’s our next game? This Thursday, right?”

                Garnet nodded.

                “Yeah, against the Puffers.” Garnet reminded.

                “Puffers, what a dumb name.” Ruby laughed, thinking of the school with their weird mascot- a Pufferfish. Threatening, right.

                “We don’t have much room to judge,” Sapphire hummed quietly, “We’re called The Geodes.”

                “Yeah, but Geodes turn into super cool diamonds and stuff, so it’s worth it.” Ruby replied, pouting.

                Pearl smiled, they worked well together.

                “So, Sapphire,” Ruby started, putting the subject back to basketball, “You going to the game?”

                “Well, we have the Chem test Friday, but I’ve been studying pretty hard, so I’ll try to.” Sapphire answered.

                “Sweet.” Ruby grinned, “What about you, Pearl?”

                “Me?” Pearl echoed, surprised. She wasn’t exactly an athletic frequent, “Uh, I guess I’ll try.”

                You can’t exactly say _no_ with the Captain sitting across from you.

                “Cool.” Garnet said, smiling.

                Pearl sighed to herself. She didn’t know anything about basketball, but she figured she’d just clap when her school did, too.

                Thursday came around as usual, and Pearl went to the game as promised. Thankfully, it was home, so she didn’t have to drive anywhere (she had gotten her license only a month ago). She located Sapphire, and sat next to her.

                “Hey, Pearl.” Sapphire smiled, looking up from her book.

                “How can you read with this noise?” Pearl asked, looking at the two teams practicing on their respective sides.

                “Oh, this is just practice, it’s not too loud,” Sapphire shrugged. Clearly having Ruby as a girlfriend made you used to loud noises, “When the game actually starts, I put it away.”

                “Oh, okay.” Pearl nodded understandingly. She didn’t actually understand, since she thought it was loud enough already, but she tried.

                “This is your first game you’ve been to, right?” Sapphire asked, closing her book.

                “Mhm,” Pearl nodded, “I’m not very well-versed in sports.”

                “Don’t worry about it, the main point of this game is just get a ball in a hoop. Plus, our school is super loud, so you’ll know when to clap.”

                Pearl smiled, relieved. That would be her plan. Watch and looked like she knew what was happening, and clap when everyone else did.

                Pearl noticed that Garnet had her sunglasses off, since it was a game. But she couldn’t see far enough to see anything special with her eyes to tell if they were sensitive or something.

                The game started, and Garnet was the one for the Geodes’ to try to get the ball when it was thrown up by the referee. Pearl noticed that she really was tall. It’s hard to notice when you’re all sitting. Garnet got the ball to her team, and the game got going. Both teams seemed really good, but that was only Pearls guess. She did notice, though, that every time Ruby got a basket, Sapphire cheered louder, and Ruby would always give her ‘winning smile’ at Sapphire. Pearl smiled to herself, enjoying the romance of her friends. Garnet got the ball, soon, and ran at the speed of light to her basket, making what looked to Pearl like a professional level Layup. Pearl blinked, seeing it go down in slow-motion. Garnet’s arm muscles were really defined, for a high school senior. She must practice a lot. As Pearl watched the remainder of the game, she focused more on Garnet than the ball. Garnet was as focused as ever, dead-set on winning. She could steal the ball, jump, pass, catch, everything with amazing elegance and skill. Pearl’s eyes practically zoomed in on Garnet, watching as her defined muscles popped out with each catch, and how her panting caused her shoulders to move up and down when she stood still.

                The game ended, the Geodes winning by 12 points. The crowd began to filter through the door, but Sapphire was obviously waiting for her girlfriend to finish so she could give her a personal congratulations.

                “Do you want to wait with me?” Sapphire asked Pearl, since she knew Pearl didn’t like being pushed in a crowd like the one at the door, “Ruby loves being the center of attention, she’ll be happy if you do.”

                “If it’s okay with you, I’d love to.” Pearl nodded in relief.

                So the two waited until the coach had finished giving her speech to the team, then the girls all picked up their bags and started to head out themselves. Garnet and Ruby walked over to the bleachers, where Sapphire clapped quietly. Pearl noticed all too quickly how Garnet’s sweat stuck to her clothes, keeping them tight. Also, Garnet was wearing her glasses again. Man, she really was attached to those.

                “You two were great!” She smiled, but her eyes were focused on Ruby.

                “Yeah, you seemed super serious.” Pearl nodded, smiling. She wasn’t competitive when it came to sports, so it was interesting to see it.

                “Yeah, Garnet and I are in it to win!” Ruby announced, elbowing Garnet. Garnet smiled slightly, nodding in agreement.

                “I can tell,” Pearl chuckled.

                “Well, I think it’s time to go home, you two need your rest.” Sapphire pointed out, standing up.

                The four of them walked to the door, and Pearl noticed the smell that radiated off of Garnet. Normally, Pearl hated the smell of even one drop of sweat, but Garnet seemed to have a natural smell that made even her smelly sweat decent.

                As Pearl drove home, she thought about Garnet. Why was she thinking about her so much suddenly? But at every red light, she thought of her tough muscles and panting breathes, and her small smiles and curly afro.

                Pearl was a reasonable person, she wasn’t a misguided air head. She knew the signs of a crush. She would be fine with acknowledging said crush, she wasn’t in denial at all. It was the surprise that temporarily clouded her vision. All of her crushes were on people with soft hearts, good grades, and people that were emotionally accessible. As far as she knew, Garnet was nothing like that. Well, probably the grade part, but the other two.

                She drove up the driveway to her house slowly, and stepped out of the car, her mind full of thoughts of her heart’s choice.

                What to do… What to do…..


	8. Chapter 8, Pearlmethyst: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MY SHIP. The saddest part is, is that i wrote Pearlnet better than i wrote Pearlmethyst. i cri.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> real talk i know a human who is literally Pearl, like eXACTLY Pearl.

                Chapter 8 [Bothersome]

 

                _Chew, chew, chew. Shuffle, shuffle._

_PTOOEY!_

Pearl groaned to herself. Why, _why_ did Amethyst have to be like this? She considered Amethyst a ‘friend’ but certainly not enough to allow a spitball armada.

                “Ahem.” Pearl grumbled, turning around to face Amethyst, “Just what are you doing?”

                “Nothin’. What are you talking about?” Amethyst joked, the straw still in her hand.

                “If you spit one more I swear I’ll-”

                “Excuse me, Miss. White? Do you have something you’d like to share with the class?” The teacher interrupted.

                “N-No sir.” Pearl answered, turning to face forward immediately. Once the teacher turned back around, Pearl shot one quick glare at Amethyst, who was holding back laughter.

                The class continued quietly, as Pearl liked it. But happiness could only last so long.

                _Poke._

_Poke, poke._

_Poke._

_Poke, poke, po-_

“Amethyst!” Pearl whispered, sitting as close to her desk as possible, in hopes to make Amethyst stop poking her back.

                “Hm?” Amethyst mumbled quietly, as if she was innocent.

                Pearl just shot another glare to Amethyst, trying to get back to work. It lasted a little while, but not long enough.

                _Grip… Grip… TUG!_

Pearl hissed quietly, smacking a hand to the back of her head, where Amethyst had just yanked some hair.

                “What is wrong with you?!” She whispered, making sure the teacher didn’t hear.

                “Nothin’.” Amethyst shrugged, smiling.

                Pearl rolled her eyes angrily, praying for the bell. Thankfully, it rang before Amethyst could continue her life dream of being a nuisance.

                The rest of the day passed normally, since Pearl either had a different class than Amethyst, or sat away from her.

                “Hey there, P!” Amethyst called at dismissal.

                “Hello…” Pearl grumbled, not moving to face her.

                “Aw, what’s wrong?” She laughed, catching up to her.

                “You!” Pearl snapped, “Why do you have to try to be such a nuisance to me all the time?!”

                Amethyst blinked for a moment, then regained composure.

                “I donno. Yer angry face is cute, I guess.” She shrugged with a smirk, then went on her way.

                Pearl blinked, frozen in shock. She just snapped right in Amethyst’s face about how annoying she was, and _that’s_ the answer she gets?

                She sighed, shaking her head, annoyed. She set off, marching home angrily.

                When she got home, she looked in the mirror on her bedroom door. She still looked upset, her cheeks pink with anger.

                But Pearl knew the reality of the situation. Her anger went down a while ago. Anger was not the cause of her pink tinted cheeks.

 


	9. Chapter 9, Lasper: Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lasper continues!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly rereading this is making me ship Lasper again. The last episode to air as I'm posting this was Watermelon Island/Gem Drill. So basically I've seen the worst torture fusion be stabbed apart and watched jasper d i e

                Chapter 9 [The Bully and The Swimmer _part 4_ ]

 

                Monday, the world’s favorite day, came around just like always would. But Jasper would take it anyway. Ever since she started hanging out with Lapis, her days seemed to have a cheery tint to them, instead of her being constantly miserable. Well, not miserable, but grumpy. After all, being a bully is a hard life. Speaking of which, she just realized that she hadn’t stolen someone’s money or pushed anyone against the lockers recently…

                She shrugged and walked into the large school entrance. She went to her locker and pulled out a few of her books. Just a notebook that she used to spit wads and throwing ammo, and whichever of the textbooks was lightest. Also, her Marine Biology textbook. But Marine Biology was sixth period. But every time she saw the book, her mind wandered to her blue-loving friend. In fact, she thought about her often enough, Peridot started using a codename for Lapis, so they could talk about Jasper’s… predicament… without attracting attention. Lapis was called Jasper’s ‘pet fish’, and Peridot would often tease Jasper for her love of her ‘new pet fish’. In fact, Jasper even _studied_ Marine Biology every now and then.

                Jasper glanced at her reflection from the locker, noticing her nose was a little redder than usual. Last Saturday was Greg’s beach party, and her nose got a sunburnt.

                “Excuse me, Jasper!” A soft, sweet voice called out to Jasper. Jasper whipped her head around to see Lapis. Suddenly, she felt a mixture of regret and joy. Regret because she most likely couldn’t keep her heart down anymore, and joy because… well…

                The reasoning behind her varied emotions was Lapis, as she stood before her. Jasper had already forgotten, but Saturday night, she had given Lapis her hoodie for warmth. Evidently, Lapis didn’t forget, as she was wearing it right now. The sleeves were too long, the hood piled up and pushed up her hair, and it was basically the cutest thing ever. Jasper had always heard about how people thought it was cute when a small person wore something oversized, but she never saw its appeal. But Lapis changed _everything_. And she was _adorable_.

                “H-Hey, Lapis.” Jasper mumbled, averting her eyes.

                “Do you want you your hoodie back? I didn’t have a chance to wash it…” Lapis admitted, holding up one of the sleeves.

                “You can use it, if you want…” Jasper shrugged, “I have plenty.”

                “Are you sure?” Lapis double checked, looking up at Jasper with wide, innocent eyes.

                _Stop being so cute, seriously…_

“Yeah, sure. You can keep it if you want.” Jasper offered. It was, after all, a kind of old hoodie.

                Lapis smiled up at her.

                “Thanks!” Lapis hummed, reaching over to give Jasper a quick hug, “I got to get my books for first period.”

                Jasper nodded slowly, watching as Lapis walked away to her class.

                _I can’t believe I’m admitting this,_ Jasper thought as she began to walk to her own class, _But… I REALLY like my fish._

Jasper spent all her classes either daydreaming or glaring at classmates. Finally Marine Biology came. Jasper rushed to class, the only class she actually cared about. Lapis was there already, and Jasper rushed to her seat across from Lapis. Lapis was still wearing Jasper’s hoodie (well, Lapis’ hoodie now). All of her hands that were visible was the tips of her fingers, holding a blue pencil.

                “How’s your day been, Jasper?” Lapis asked kindly, looking up.

                “It’s been.” Jasper shrugged, pulling out her book.

                “Um… I got you something on Sunday. I didn’t have a chance to give it to you this morning.” Lapis explained, pulling a small bag out of her backpack.

                Jasper reached over quickly, holding her hands wide open, ready for any present from Lapis. So Lapis handed the small bag, and Jasper quickly opened it.

                Inside was one of those little kiddy statues that you filled with sand to make it colorful. It had at least five different shades of blue all crammed in one tiny dolphin statue.

                “I know it’s not much. But I hope you like it,” Lapis whispered, her shoulders shrugging up in shy happiness.

                Jasper looked up from the statue to Lapis, holding back a grin.

                “I think it’s great.” Jasper answered, holding the small dolphin as carefully as she had ever held anything.


	10. Chapter 10: Jaspidot: Oneshot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SEPARATE from "Bully and Nerd". Happy OneShot time

                Chapter 10 [Emails]

 

                Peridot stared at her computer screen. She had written a full length email, a modern love letter. It was very long, too, and at first glance, it looked like a full essay with MLA citing. But no, it was an unsent love letter. And it will remain unsent. Peridot sent the love letter to her drafts folder, which was filled with emails just like this- pathetic, unrequited love letters. Peridot leaned back into her computer chair, sighing loudly.

                “Pathetic…” Peridot mumbled to herself, her hands covering her face, “Just pathetic.”

                Slowly, she leaned forward, scrolling through the endless drafts. All for the same, stupid, loud, obnoxious jerk that Peridot had somehow fallen smitten to. Peridot was clean, orderly, and was a ‘do your own thing’ kind of person. Jasper was messy, chaotic, and ‘in your face 24/7’ type of person. So… Opposites attract?

                She decided to pull a roulette and pick one of the love letters to read to herself.

                _Dear Jasper:_

_I understand this must come off as strange, especially coming from me. But as you’ve said yourself, emotions are an uncontrollable power. And I have something of the emotional variant to admit. I have fallen for you. I know I complain about your obnoxious tendencies, but through that façade I have seen many more things to love from you. I could list the-_

That’s when Peridot closed the draft.

                _Why am I so embarrassing?_ She asked herself. When she wrote the emails, her mind focused solely on Jasper, not how ridiculous and love sick she sounded.

                _I need to just write the most upfront one, that’s what Jasper will actually get…_ She thought, continuing her mental monologue.

                _Dear Jasper:_

_I like you._

_-Peridot_

She stared at the email for a moment, sighing at how blunt and stupid she sounded.

                _Now or never, Peridot…_

**SEND.**

She closed her laptop the moment after typing it, not wanting to be alerted to an angry email from Jasper about how grossed out she was. This was a dumb idea. A dumb, horrible, stupid, frustrating, childish-

                _Ding~!_

Peridot sighed. She forgot her phone alerted her of emails.

                _Same._

_-Jasper_

               


	11. Chapter 11, Pearlnet: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearlnet continues!

                Chapter 11 [A Pearl for Pearl, _part 2_ ]

 

                Pearl texted her friend Sapphire, waiting anxiously for each reply.

                ‘ _so how did u and ruby get together, exactly?’_

_‘Oh, it’s a long story. Y?’_

_‘I may or may not have a suddenly increasing crush and need advice’_

_‘Garnet?’_

_‘who told you?!?!?! <:(‘_

_‘no one. Don’t think I didn’t see u at the game staring a hole thru her. Lol’_

_‘oh. Soo…..?’_

_‘I mean shes single. Go for it I guess?’_

_‘mmmmmmmmmmhow??????’_

_‘idk. Just like ask her out.’_

_‘Sapphire you’re supposed to be romantically knowledgeable.’_

_‘it’s Ruby. Just how romantic did u expect?’_

_‘right. Thanks’_

Pearl sighed again, throwing her phone against her pillow. As much as she loved Sapphire, she could be tricky sometimes.

                Bing!

                She checked her phone again, another message from Sapphire.

                ‘ _Trust me, Garnet is a lot less mysterious than she looks. Just ask her, don’t make it complicated.’_

Pearl thought about that for a moment. Garnet did seem pretty mysterious from first glance, but she trusted Sapphires opinion.

                “Alright,” She mumbled to herself, “Tomorrow… I’ll ask her out, I guess.”

                And tomorrow came. Pearl was a nervous wreck in the morning, but a text message pep talk from Sapphire helped to boost her confidence, and she was ready to ask Garnet out. Thankfully, she saw Garnet in the morning, so she would be able to ask her.

                “Um, excuse me, Garnet?” Pearl asked, walking up to the tall girl.

                “Mhm?” Garnet replied, facing Pearl. Her face was as emotionless as ever, so Pearl didn’t quite know what to expect.

                “Um, so if you wanted to, the county fair is starting this weekend... Would you want to go with me?” Pearl asked sheepishly.

                “As a date?” Garnet asked, her face still showing no new emotions.

                “I-If you want to.” Pearl nodded.

                Garnet thought about it for a moment, looking up, then faced Pearl again. Although that was hard to tell, since she was still wearing sunglasses.

                “Sounds fun to me. See you Saturday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> off topic but im watching bobs burgers and man oh man do i love Gene


	12. Chapter 12, Pearlnet: Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Pearlnet

                Chapter 12 [A Pearl for Pearl _part 3_ ]

 

                Pearl threw clothes all over the floor, searching madly through her closet. Her closet wasn’t dirty, though, it was actually very tidy. But when one goes into a panic, you forget how orderly things should be.

                “What am I even supposed to wear?” She asked herself, her hands gripping her head, hoping for an answer to be squeezed out. She was going out on _a date_ with Garnet Love herself! She had been in such a dreamlike state during school after she got the unexpected answer, she forgot to think about what to wear.

                “County Fair… County Fair…” Pearl mumbled, throwing shirts around aimlessly. Should she go completely casual with just jeans and a T-shirt? Or was that too sloppy? Should she treat it like a proper date and wear something more acceptable? But what if Garnet thought she was trying too hard and didn’t want to spend any more time with her?

                She grabbed her phone and scrolled through her contacts (smiling for a moment as she passed Garnets) and called Sapphire.

                “Hello?” A slightly muffled voice answered the ringing.

                “Sapphire? I need your help! You always seem to know what to wear, what should I go to the fair?” Pearl pleaded, the words flying through her mouth.

                “Well, probably not a skirt or something, if you want to ride any rides. I guess just wear something casual but clean, you know?” Sapphire answered calmly, which bothered Pearl, since she was in such a frantic.

                “Ok, thank you.” Pearl whispered, still not quite sure, and hung up. She continued to rummage through her outfits, and finally settled on a clean pair of light blue jeans and a black V-neck shirt that made her flat chest look slightly less fat.

                She triple checked herself in the mirror, and put on some makeup. Not enough to be way too obvious (like her friend Amethyst did just to annoy her), but enough to get rid of that growing zit on her forehead. She always seemed to get them right dead-center on her forehead, like they were gathered there or something.

                She took a deep breath and went back to her room. Just in time, evidently, since she heard her phone vibrating on her bed.

                ‘Do you want me to come and pick you up if you’re ready?’

                Pearl appreciated her proper texting grammar, then answered.

                ‘If you could, that would be great.’

                Pearl texted her address and a ‘thank you’. She smiled, relaxing for the first time since she got home. Hopefully this will go well. It was growing darker- the only time to go to a fair- so Garnet would have to focus a lot more to see if Pearl was blushing. A perfect disguise.

                About thirty minutes later, a red car drove up into her driveway. Pearl walked out and sat in the passenger’s seat, thanking Garnet again. Pearl quickly examined Garnet’s outfit to see if hers was close to it too.

                Garnet was wearing a dark red tank top and black jean shorts. Pearl took quick note of Garnet’s large thighs, which looked amazing in her shorts. She took a quick glance down at her own body. Flat chested and chicken legs, nothing like Garnet’s model-level body.

                Pearl quickly shook those thoughts out of her head. She had long past Middle school, and with it she left her self-consciousness behind. Tried to, at least.

                She looked back up to start conversation with Garnet. Just your basic ‘lovely weather’ small talk. As she talked, Pearl realized that Garnet was still wearing sunglasses. The sun was over half-way done setting, and soon it would be dark. How did Garnet see with those? Why did she wear them in the first place…?

                After a little while of pleasant conversation, they reached the fair. Pearl gazed in awe of the brightly colored Ferris Wheel.

                “So what do you want to do first?” Garnet asked as they walked through the entrance. There was three major pathways you could take- one to the major rides, one to the games, and the other do the petting zoo and other animal-related activities.

                “I don’t know,” Pearl shrugged, “It’s up to you.”

                “Want to go on some rides?” Garnet offered, giving Pearl a quick, comforting smile. Pearl remembered Sapphires friendly warning: Garnet wasn’t emotionless, she just looked like it. So every smile is like ten.

                Pearl nodded, sending another smile back.

                The two walked down the pathway, looking at all the rides. Now, the last thing Pearl wanted to do was go on one of those rides that flip you upside down and side to side and inside out. So she just prayed Garnet wanted a ride like a Ferris Wheel or something else calm like that.

                “How about that one?” Garnet asked, pointing to the universal county fair ride: That weird boat that swung back and forth. Thankfully, back and forth was the only direction it went, so Pearl agreed.           

                “That’ll be 10 tickets each.” The ride manager said, holding his hand out. Both Pearl and Garnet had bought tickets at the entrance.

                “Here.” Garnet said, handing him twenty.

                “Oh, I can pay for mine!” Pearl offered quickly, reaching into her pocket.

                “My treat,” Garnet shrugged, with another small smile. That’s twenty smiles according to Sapphire’s calculations. That’s a lot so far, and Pearl was happy with her winnings.

                “I’m paying for the next one, then.” Pearl sighed, putting her tickets back into her pocket. They were about to walk on, when the manager called out.           

                “Wait, ma’am, can you take your glasses off? They usually fall off on this ride, so it will be easier if you just leave them here with me. Don’t worry, I won’t give them to anyone else, either.” He explained.

                Pearl glanced up to Garnet, whose smile vanished and was replaced with a slightly suppressed frown.

                “Right…” She mumbled, handing him her glasses and turning quickly onto the ride, before could even see her eyes. When they sat in the ride and waited for others to get on, Garnet put her head in her hand and faced outside, away from Pearl.

                “Are.. are you okay?” Pearl asked nervously. She didn’t think she had done something to make her mad.

                “I just don’t like taking them off…” Garnet answered quietly.

                “If you don’t mind me asking… why _do_ you wear them all the time? It’s dark, too.” Pearl asked, curiosity almost taking over manners.

                Garnet sighed, and slowly turned to face Pearl with her eyes wide open. Pearl found out just what she was hiding.

                On of Garnet’s eyes was blue, and the other a dark brown. That was why.

                Pearl had heard about people who had differently colored eyes, but never met one herself. But this whole time, Garnet was one. But as Pearl looked into her eyes, she felt her heart lurching nearly out of her chest and her stomach falling backwards-

                Wait, no, that was the ride starting.

                But still, Pearl could only hope the darkness was enough to cover her blush.

                “It’s embarrassing.” Garnet muttered, facing forward. The ride hadn’t gotten fast enough for anyone to start screaming yet.

                “I think it looks nice.” Pearl said, smiling shyly.

                Garnet blinked, facing Pearl again with slight surprise.

                But just as she faced her, the ride lurched forward again, even faster. Now the crowd started screaming, and the two almost forgot about their conversation and got swept up in the ride. As it went higher and higher, faster and faster, both Pearl and Garnet screamed with the crowd. And in between the screams, Pearl could hear a feint, relaxed laughter coming from right next to her. She had never heard Garnet’s real, not small-chuckle laugh, until just now.

                And Pearl realized that she wanted to hear it every day. She wanted to help Garnet relax enough to laugh that beautiful, deep laugh every hour of every day.


	13. Chapter 13, Rupphire: Oneshot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rupphire is the real OTP

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Rupphire. keep in mind this is only after Jailbreaks canon, so The Answer and stuff hadn't happened yet lol

                Chapter 13 [Never Again]

 

                Sapphire stared angrily at her bathroom mirror. Why did her life have to suck so much? She was a good person. She donated to charity. She sung in the church choir. She tried to be nice to everyone. So just _what_ did she do to deserve this in her life?

                She had a giant wad of bright pink gum in her hair. Right in the center of the back of her hair.

                Beautiful.

                She held up her large red scissors, looking at them like the sword she was destined to die on. She had been growing her hair out for years. She took such good care of her long, wavy hair. And now fate had decided to let a rotten little kid get his gum in her hair.

                She took a deep breath, holding back her tears, and brought the scissors to her hair. She cut slowly, and very carefully, too. She actually knew how to cut her own hair, but it was still difficult. But she was able to do it.

                And now, after years of growing her hair out, now it was just a shoulder-length wave. She sighed, banging her head against the mirror.

                _Bing, bing!_

She had texted Ruby about her predicament, and Ruby finally texted back.

                ‘if it makes u feel better, I have short hair’

                Sapphire sighed. Not helping, babe. She picked up her phone and sent a snapchat to Ruby.

                ‘Disgusting’

                She sent, with the picture of her with her new hair.

                Ruby sent another back with a small, sorry smile.

                ‘I still think ur super hot tbh’

                Sapphire couldn’t help but giggle. While she couldn’t wait for her hair to grow back, at least she had Ruby to help her through the hard struggle of life.


	14. Chatpter 14, Pearlnet: Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> P-P-Pearlnet

                Chapter 14 [A Pearl for Pearl _part 4_ ]

 

                Pearl walked through the halls of her high school, smiling to herself. Last weekend, she and Garnet went to the fair together. _Together-together_. As in a date. Together. Dating.

                She took a deep breath, keeping herself from smiling too widely in the halls and looking like a weirdo. But it was hard to help herself, since she had so much fun with Garnet. She had never seen Garnet smile as much as that day, and she seemed to be genuinely comfortable around Pearl, too.

                “Oh, hey, Pearl!” Sapphire called, walking up to Pearl.   

                “Hi, Sapphire.” Pearl smiled back, walking with Sapphire to their first period.

                “So how did your date go?” Sapphire asked, nudging Pearl.

                “It was really nice.” Pearl smiled shyly, her shoulders rising in embarrassment.

                “You know, there’s another basketball game today. You should go, I bet Garnet would appreciate it.”

                “Sure.” Pearl nodded, “I still don’t understand that sport, though…”

                “That’s fine. Just cheer when I do, same as the last game.” Sapphire shrugged.

                “Do you think Garnet liked the date?” Pearl asked Sapphire, worried for a moment.

                “I’m sure she did. If she didn’t think she would have fun, she wouldn’t have gone.” Sapphire reminded.

                “Right…” Pearl nodded, opening the door for their class. “Still, I don’t want to get too clingy and bother her, you know?”

                “Yeah, I understand. But just do what you want, Garnet will tell you if it’s annoying or anything.” Sapphire shrugged, sitting in front of Pearl.

                Pearl nodded again, trying to reassure herself. She usually wasn’t nervous about stuff to this extent, but she still wasn’t too used to the whole dating scene (especially with someone like Garnet) so things were still a little scary. But as the day progressed- with some encouragement from Sapphire- she grew far more comfortable. Lunch came and she pulled out her humble peanut butter & jelly sandwich. She was sitting with Ruby, Sapphire, and Garnet again today.

                “Hey, babe!” Ruby greeted Sapphire, scooting so Sapphire could sit next to her. Thus letting Pearl sit next to Garnet.

                “Hey, Ruby.” Sapphire smiled back, “Oh, Pearl’s going to tonight’s game again!”

                “Oh, sweet!” Ruby smirked, giving Pearl a quick thumbs up, “You know, I’m actually starting this game! Coach must have realized just how amazing and strong I am, since I _am_ pretty amazing. Did you know I can-”

                That’s about where Pearl stopped listening. She glanced up to Garnet, who seemed to have the faintest trickle of a smile.

                Maybe this will go well…

                “Pearl? Earth to Pearl!” Ruby nearly shouted, getting not only Pearl’s attention but the ten nearest kids.

                “Ruby, bring it down ten notches,” Sapphire sighed, not even looking up from her food.

                “Right, sorry.” Ruby obeyed, quieting down, then focused back to Pearl, “But yeah, as I was saying: Tonight’s game is away, and even though Coach nags at us for it, its customary for us to bring out dates with us on the bus. I _always_ bring Sapphire to every game. So if you and Garnet were cool with it, why not hop on the bus, too?”

                Pearl glanced up to Garnet, who stopped chewing.

                “Yeah, sure. I’m good if you are.” Garnet agreed, looking at Pearl for her answer.

                “Oh, um, alright.” Pearl nodded shyly, happy that Garnet agreed.

                “And Pearl,” Ruby chuckled, “Don’t worry about Coach’s rants. We always bring our dates with us, she’ll be fine. Just no making out in the back, she _really_ goes crazy about that…”

                Ruby rubbed her head at the unfortunate memory, clearly speaking from experience. But Pearl didn’t notice, her face was bright red and her mouth agape at the comment.

                “Ruby!” Sapphire scolded, noticing Pearl’s discomfort, “Don’t be rude!”

                Ruby just laughed, shrugging.

                Pearl took a light-speed glance at Garnet to see if she had a similar reaction. But Garnet seemed as stoic as ever. She had stopped eating, thinking about something. Probably a play on the game. Pearl sighed and relaxed. What else to expect from Ruby…

                “You think Coach would let her captain do that, though?” Garnet asked, looking up to Ruby. Pearl was completely flabbergasted, and stared up to Garnet in shock. But Garnet didn’t notice. She and Ruby were having a far too serious conversation about whether or not the coach would allow Garnet to make out in the back of the team bus.

                “Yeah, but she always gives us those ‘I treat you all the same’ rants, remember?” Ruby continued.

                “But that’s for in-game stuff, don’t you think she’d be lenient as for privileges?” Garnet asked, leaning forward a little.

                “True… But still, don’t you think that’s extreme for her not to notice?”  

                “I mean you’ve tried it at least ten times.” Garnet pointed out.

                “With no success every time!” Ruby grumbled, crossing her arms. Sapphire just sighed, hiding her face in her hands.

                “G-Guys…” Pearl whispered. Ruby kept talking, but Garnet turned to face her.

                “I-I don’t mean to be rude, I promise, but… I didn’t plan on making out in the bus…” She explained, her face getting redder by the moment.

                “Problem solved.” Garnet shrugged, going back to eating like they were just discussing a simple math problem.

                “More room for me ‘n Sapphire.” Ruby smirked, leaning against Sapphire.

                “I’m getting tired of Coach-caused migraines, Ruby.” Sapphire huffed, “How about we just sit like normal human beings?”

                “Awww,” Ruby whined loudly, “Fine.”

                Pearl made a nearly silent giggle. Ruby was a funny character. She seemed so scary and strong from a distance, but she was really just a big, fit baby.

                Lunch continued and finished, as well as the rest of the school day. Pearl followed Sapphire to the bus, where they waited for the girls to change. Soon, they all came out in their uniforms. Pearl tried to remember any of their names in case they came up in conversation, but she hardly knew any of them.

                “Hey guys!” Ruby waved at the two, walking up with Garnet close behind. Seeing them standing, it was funny to see the height difference. For a basketball player, Ruby was awfully short.

                “Hi!” Pearl and Sapphire waved back, standing up.

                “Sapp’ is sitting with me.” Ruby ordered, grabbing Sapphire’s wrist as her claim.

                “I get Pearl, then.” Garnet smiled slightly. Pearl smiled back shyly. She was embarrassed at how happy Garnet ‘claiming her’ felt inside. What was she, 12?

                The group all went inside the bus, Pearl and Sapphire still close together.

                “Just what is this?!” The coach bellowed, getting up from the driver’s seat, “Ruby?! How many times do I have to tell you?”

                “I know, I know,” Ruby sighed, still smiling, “The bus is for team players only, blah blah blah.”

                “Um…” Pearl whispered, “Should I just get off and drive?”

                “Nope.” Garnet answered where she thought the coach would.

                “You too, Garnet?” The coach sighed, “If I can’t control my captain, how can I control the rest of them?”

                “Sorry, coach, it’s tradition.” Garnet shrugged, and Ruby laughed, nodding. The four of them then went to their seats. Pearl had the window seat with Garnet next to her, then across the aisle was Sapphire and Ruby, with Sapphire with the window seat.

                “Don’t worry,” Ruby said before sitting down, leaning to Pearl, “Coach is actually really cool, she’s kind of just a ‘protective mom’ figure to us.”

                Pearl nodded, relaxing. She _had_ heard many stories of how coach practically dedicated her life to her girls. Her ‘whining’ was just her way of joking scolding the girls, evidently. Well, she was serious about the making out part…

                She stared out the window, watching the trees wiz by. She heard the quiet conversation between Garnet and Ruby about the team they were playing. Apparently their defense was super strong, but their offense was crap. So all they had to do was break the defense and the game was theirs. Pearl liked the name of the other school: The Knights. She liked medieval stories and such, so she thought it was a cool name.

                “And Sapp’ here is gonna be my personal cheerleader!” Ruby laughed, finishing the conversation.

                Garnet sat straight again, back against the chair.

                “You okay?” She asked Pearl quietly.

                “Oh, yeah, sorry. I always like looking out car windows, I guess.” Pearl shrugged, embarrassed at her child-like tendency.

                “It’s fine.” Garnet smiled lightly, “Are you excited for the game?”

                Pearl nodded, smiling. While she still didn’t understand it, the games did seem exciting, and she did get caught up in the waves of applause.

                Soon, the car stopped (causing a slight angry noise from Ruby, who was busy ‘not-making-out’ in the seat next to them), and Coach stood up.

                “Alright girls, we’re here. You guys already know who’s starting and what plays we’re using. Garnet, you have all the play names ready?”

                “Yes.” Garnet answered.

                “Good. Now go do your best, girls. We need to break their defense, no matter what. If that means breaking your leg, you better be in a wheelchair by the end of the game. Now go win me another game.”

                Pearl smiled to herself. Pep-talks are weird.

                She got up with the rest of the team and left after them. She and Sapphire sat in the front, together. They chatted for a little while until the game started. They both cheered as loud as they could for their respective favorites, and watched the scoreboard anxiously.

                Thankfully, the Geodes were able to get past the defense and win the game again. But just barely. Both Pearl and Sapphire were cheeringly loudly at the last buzzer, indicating their win.

                After a talk from Coach, they all came out one girl at a time. Ruby and Garnet came out soon, and walked towards Pearl and Sapphire. Ruby didn’t look quite as enthusiastic as the last game Pearl went to.

                “I hate teams with defense like that…” She grumbled, still slightly out of breath.

                Garnet just nodded in agreement.

                “I think you did marvelous.” Sapphire smiled, and Ruby smiled back, giving her a sweet kiss on the cheek.

                “You did great, too.” Pearl looked up to Garnet, her eyes probably portraying her awe of just how well someone can play sports.

                “Thanks.” Garnet smiled back, then paused for a moment. She seemed to be deciding something in her head quickly, then made a decision. To copy Ruby.

                She leaned down to Pearl’s height and gave Pearl a quick kiss on her cheek. Pearl’s face grew red incredibly fast, and she stared at the floor, unable to make eye-contact.

                “Th-Thank you….” Pearl muttered quietly. That was all she could say, but took a deep breath and made herself be brave. She reached up and gave Garnet a quick kiss, as well.

                Garnet smiled down at her, and Pearl noticed it was a wider smile than earlier.

                You know, she might just go to all the games…


	15. Chapter 15: Lasper, part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short swim meet

“Go, Lapis, Go!” Jasper shouted from the stands. She was at one of the biggest swim meets of the season, and there was no way she’d let it pass without going to cheer on her friend. She only had a few, after all.   
But despite all of her cheering, Lapis still lost by only a smidge. After everything had ended, Lapis walked outside with Jasper by her side.  
“I still can’t believe I lost… I have the technique down pat, it’s the strength I need work on. I need to get some more arm muscles…” Lapis muttered mostly to herself.  
Jasper took a quick glance at her own, very muscular arms.  
“You know, we could go to the gym together sometime. I could show you some of my workouts, if you think it’ll help.” Jasper offered.   
“Really? That’d be great!” Lapis said, looking up and nodding.   
Jasper smiled at Lapis, proud of herself for finding even more time for them to be together.   
So the day of the gym meet up came, and the two went in together. Lapis was just wearing a normal shirt with sweatpants, but the gym-regular that Jasper was, she was wearing a muscle shirt and short spandex. She was never one to hide her muscles (except at the beach, as we already know).   
“Ok,” Jasper started, leading Lapis in to the weight room which was conveniently almost empty, “I’ll show you the ones I use the most.”  
And after a brief explanation of her usual workout, Jasper and Lapis got to work. Lapis was working on the one where you’re sitting up and pulling the weighted levers down, and Jasper was across from her doing some quick pull ups. But after a few reps, Lapis started to glance up, and her glances grew longer and longer. She couldn’t help herself, really. Jasper’s ab muscles tightened at each pull, and her biceps were incredible. Lapis tried to justify her staring as ‘inspiration’, but the voice in the back of her mind reminded her it was for no such reason.   
She quickly shook her head and got back to work. Staring would win her no swim meets.   
The duo did several other workouts, and Lapis still caught herself staring a few times. After a couple hours of hard work, the two decided it was time to head home. Thankfully enough, they lived within feasible walking distance to the gym. Lapis’ house was closer, so Jasper was happy to walk her home.   
“So you think it helped any?” Jasper asked, starting the light conversation.  
“I think so. I hope we’ll be able to go again sometime.” Lapis said, smiling up to Jasper.   
Jasper gave her a quick smile back, then faced forward again.  
“You know… If you ever wanted to go somewhere together… Like, besides the gym..” Jasper mumbled, not knowing exactly how to word this.  
“Like what?” asked Lapis.  
“Whatever you want,” Jasper shrugged, “But um… if you wanted to… we could go somewhere as, y’know, as a date I guess?”  
The words came out pretty quickly toward the end, so Lapis had to take a moment to register them. But when she did, her face flushed quickly.  
“Oh, um… I-I think that’d be nice…” She whispered, smiling shyly to herself.  
“Really?!” Jasper asked, more shocked than anything. She had steeled herself for a brutal rejection, but Peridot had been bugging her to finally ask Lapis out, so she caved and went for it. A ‘yes’ was not was she was planning for. But it made everything way better.  
“Sure… I mean, I think it would be nice… I think you’re nice, too…” Lapis said, still staring down at her feet as she walked, fumbling with her hands a little.   
“Thanks.” Jasper mumbled back, scratching her neck, “So uh… How about the movies tomorrow? It’s Sunday tomorrow, after all.”  
“Sure.” Lapis nodded, this time finally looking up, “I’m excited to go with you.”  
Jasper couldn’t help her face from warming up. Why did Lapis have to make her feel all squeamish inside…  
“Well, see you there, then.” Jasper said as they reached Lapis’ house.  
“See you there.” Lapis echoed, giving Jasper one final smile before walking into her house. As she left, Jasper let out a huge sigh of relief.   
“I can’t believe that worked,” She whispered to herself.   
Things were going pretty well in her life.


	16. Chapter 16: Lasper, Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis is lame and has a diary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember i wrote this like a full year ago

Lapis searched rapidly under her bed, and grabbed a fluffy blue book with a felt ‘L’ sewed on the cover. It was a cheap little diary from the dollar store, but it was very effective. She pulled out her pen and got to writing…  
Dear Diary,  
There’s a lot of stuff I like. I like fish, and aquatic mammals, and swimming, and that movie Meet The Robinsons. And I also like muscles. A lot. I don’t really know why? But every time I see a buff surfer or something, I can’t help but stare! I get that people have their own little ‘turn ons’ and that’s probably just mine, but still… and my favorite muscles all belong to Jasper Diamond. Remember Jasper, diary? She’s the one I had over for a sleepover and went to the beach and aquarium with and all that. I still feel kind of guilty about that sleepover hug. I did genuinely mean it, but I was more focused on how her muscles felt on my arms than the actual hug. I’m a horrible person, diary, you should feel ashamed to have an author like me. Wait, is the owner of a diary an author? Whatever. Well, anyway, Jasper brought me to a gym and I probably stared at her muscles the entire time. Her arm muscles are so tight, and her ab muscles move when she breathes and her thighs are thick and I am absolute trash. And now she asked me out??? I can’t believe that, it’s so crazy. I started to crush on her a little and she actually asked me out! I swear if she doesn’t wear some winter coat to cover all her muscles I will kill someone. It’s just so frustrating because I really do like her a lot as Jasper herself, but her muscles keep distracting me and make me start thinking like some pervy sixth grade boy. I just can’t stop thinking about how her muscles will feel in my hands and if I hug her and she hugs back, I’ll be in a happy little cocoon of warmth, and what it would feel like to touch her abs or hold her arms… I’m the worst type of person, diary. But like I said, I really do like her! I used to think she was mean and a total pain but she always let me do what I wanted and she wanted to watch my favorite movie and she always tries to make me happy… I don’t know why she’s a bully since she really is nice… thankfully she hasn’t been as ‘bully-ish’ lately haha. Still, diary, pray for me. I need all the strength I can get to actually DATE Jasper without staring notstop at her. Ugh…  
Dear, your author(?),  
Lapis Lazuli


	17. Chapter 17, Pearlnet: Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Generic "try on swimsuits for each other" chapter

Pearl sat at lunch next to Garnet, and across from Ruby and Sapphire. Sapphire had just announced that she was going to have a beach day this Saturday, and invited all three of them. They all, of course, agreed to go.   
“Oh, but I need to buy a new swimsuit… The clip on my last one broke.” Pearl explained, thinking about when she can go shopping.  
“I probably need to just get a new one anyway,” Garnet nodded, “I haven’t gone to the beach since last summer.”   
“Why don’t you two go together and pick out each other’s swimsuit?” Ruby smirked, making those little finger guns towards the two of them.   
“Sure.” Garnet said, going back to her food.   
Pearl ate quietly as well, thinking. She was far over being childishly self-conscious about her body, but if she and Garnet were to go ‘bikini shopping’ together, she might still get nervous. She still liked her body, really she did, but she was worried that Garnet wouldn’t exactly find her skinny-flatness all too attractive. All the clothes she’s worn lately were just comfortable, loose fitting clothes, so nothing was all that form-fitting. But a bikini was literally the most form-fitting thing ever: it was just your skin for the most part.  
She took a deep break and finished her meal, shaking off her worry. She liked her body the way it was, so it should be fine.   
Friday night came, and Garnet and Pearl got together to go shopping. Both wore basic clothes, since they would be trying on swimsuits anyhow. The two strolled through the aisles and agreed that once they picked out three, they’d go and change into one, show each other, gather ‘constructive criticism’ (as Ruby jokingly called it) and repeat. Pearl picked out some cutesy, pastel ones. She really did love soft colors and sweet things. Her first one was a simple light blue bikini with white outside frills, her second was one that had a pink background and green and yellow flowers, and her last one was the type with the skirt looking bottom, with blue and green stripes. Garnet had clearly a different style than Pearl. Garnet liked dark and sleek colors, nowhere near as cutesy as Pearls. Her first one was black and red stripes, her second was a push-up style with navy blue and maroon checkers, and her last one was just plain red with orange edges.   
They took turns showing their swimsuit to their partner. Pearl had always thought Garnet’s body was really nice, but she didn’t realize it was this nice. Especially when she wore the push-up bikini, Pearl couldn’t believe that someone as beautiful as Garnet would be dating her. But Pearl wasn’t blind when she tried on her own swimsuits. She didn’t miss Garnet’s approving smiles, and with each swimsuit she gained more and more confidence.   
With their partner’s additional opinions, they decided. Pearl went with her first choice: Simple light blue with white frills; Garnet went with her last. They paid, and went home.   
Saturday came and the group of four went to the beach. It was a night party, since the only time to go to the beach was at night. Sapphire was wearing a green and sea foam checkered bikini, and Ruby was actually wearing a one-piece suit. After they all got there and set up their towels and drinks, Ruby pulled out a soccer ball and challenged Garnet. Their respective, less-athletic girlfriends stayed back and talked.   
“So how was shopping?” Sapphire asked, leaning back against her small chair.  
“It went a lot better than expected.” Pearl admitted.  
“That’s good. It looks really nice on you.” Sapphire smiled, pointing to the new bikini.  
“Thanks!” Pearl said, “Yours looks good, too. Oh, how come Ruby is wearing a one-piece?”  
“She likes messing around in the water,” Sapphire shrugged, “Her bikini’s will get untied with her movement, so she just wears a one piece.”  
“Oh, okay.” Pearl nodded, “Garnet always looks nice, too.”  
Sapphire smiled and nodded.  
“Yeah, she does.” Suddenly, Sapphire smirked and nudges Pearl lightly, “Did she talk about how good you look?”  
“N-No, not directly,” Pearl blushed shyly.  
“I’m sure she thought it,” Sapphire said, smilingly forward like she’s some ‘all-knowing sage’.  
“How come?” Pearl asked, genuinely curious.  
“You’ve only known Garnet for about a year of something, but Ruby and I have known her for a long time. Even when she was really little Garnet was never good at compliments. She never really knew how to word them. In fact, I bet that’s have the reason freshmen see her as some stoic figure. She’s just bad with words.”  
Sapphire laughed at her own words, watching the two playing soccer.  
“Oh…” Pearl mumbled, looking back up to Garnet, “So… You really think I look that nice?”   
“I mean, she did seem pretty happy when you joined us.” Sapphire chuckled, pointing to Pearl.  
Pearl smiled appreciatively, looking down at her body, then up to Garnet. Even if Garnet wasn’t all too good with compliments, it meant the world to Pearl.


	18. Chapter 18, Lasper: Part 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lasper first date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so the episode "Buddy's Book" just aired and i wanted to say: Buddy is Jamie's ancestor 100%

Jasper stared anxiously at her phone. She was sitting in front of the big palm tree in front of the Beach City Movie Theater, waiting for Lapis. She felt a light déjà vu, remembering when she waited for Lapis at the aquarium. But that was different. It wasn’t a date. And she didn’t feel like she had a million ants running up her sides all the time. But before she even started her internal worrying, she took a deep breath and steadied herself.   
She looked down at her feet, waving them lightly. She was so tall she could rarely do that, but the palm tree’s outside rim was high enough that she could. She was wearing a long sleeved black sweater and jeans (movie theaters are always freezing!). She put extra effort into brushing her hair and making it look relatively decent, even though it probably still looked like a fluffy mass of tangles.   
Soon enough, Lapis walked up. She was wearing a white shirt with that overall-style dress. Lapis, as always, looked adorable. Even her little ballet flat shoes looked cute on her.   
“Hi, Jasper!” She greeted happily, her face already growing pink, “You ready?”  
Jasper nodded, hopping from her seat. They checked for whatever movie was the cheapest, and went to that one. Jasper bought one medium bag of popcorn and they agreed to share it. Lapis had brought two water bottles in her purse, so they didn’t have to buy drinks.   
The previews started just as they went in.  
“Yes, previews!” Lapis smiled like a little kid, rushing to a seat at the very tip top. Jasper walked quickly to keep up with her (which wasn’t that hard, since Lapis’ legs were much shorter than her own) and sat next to her, putting the popcorn between them. Lapis handed Jasper one water bottle and enjoyed.   
Jasper ended up eating about 95% of the popcorn, but Lapis didn’t mind. As the movie drew into a sweet, sad romantic scene, Lapis leaned subtly against Jaspers arm. As if Jasper wouldn’t notice. As if Jasper’s nerve endings wouldn’t suddenly all go into her own arm. As if Jasper wouldn’t completely forget about the movie and think about Lapis.   
Which, by the way, all happened.   
The absolutely predictable romantic scene continued, and the protagonist shared one ‘last kiss’ with their romantic interest. Lapis gave a soft ‘awww’, and her shoulders bunched lightly as the mushy scene. While on her own time, Jasper would have laughed and thought the scene was ridiculous, if it made Lapis happy, it would make her happy. And she knew how much Lapis loved mushy, fluffy stuff like that.   
Suddenly, a plan grew in her mind. If Lapis liked this romantic crap that much, even if it was just a sappy movie scene before the protagonist ‘went to their fate’, than certainly it wouldn’t be unheard of if Jasper just….  
She made her decision. She would act before the mushy feelings left Lapis.   
She turned her neck slightly, leaning down to plant one soft, small kiss on top of Lapis’ head.   
Suddenly, the ‘awww’s stopped, and Lapis froze.   
Crap, Jasper yelled internally.  
But thankfully Jasper actually didn’t ruin it as she thought she had. Lapis looked up with a small, sweet smile and reached up, giving Jasper an equally sweet kiss on her cheek, then returning to the movie. Jasper’s face warmed significantly, and she fumbled with her hands. After a moment when all had registered in her mind, she smiled. And then she smiled even wider.   
Lapis Lazuli gave her a kiss. Albeit on the cheek, but still. It felt really nice…


	19. Chapter 19, Pearlnet: Part 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> garnet and pearl make out in the back of a bus

“I’m tellin’ you, Garnet, you got to start taking advantages of situations!” Ruby sighed, sitting across from Garnet and Pearl at lunch again, “You can’t just let the world zoom by you.”  
“I’ve been doing it for this long.” Garnet shrugged with a small smirk. Ruby had been lecturing her for all of lunch on how Garnet isn’t ‘ambitious enough’ and isn’t ‘taking advantages of situations’. Mostly because Ruby was mad at Garnet for not giving a quote for the front page of the school newspaper. They won a big basketball game, and since Garnet was captain, they asked her. She, like usual, had nothing to say. Ruby of course had plenty to say and was upset at Garnet for not taking the opportunity. Ruby just loved the spotlight.   
“Ugh, hopeless.” Ruby whined, putting her head down on the table loudly.   
“So is the game tomorrow home or away?” Sapphire asked Garnet, ignoring Ruby’s dramatic whining.   
“Away.” Garnet answered as she put her food into her mouth.   
“You know what that means, babe,” Ruby said, suddenly feeling fine again.   
“I don’t know if I can make it to the game.” Sapphire said bluntly, facing Ruby.   
“What? Why?” Ruby asked, looking genuinely sad. She really appreciated all of Sapphire’s encouragement, and bus-cuddles.   
“I have a doctor’s appointment at 2. If it ends and I have time, I’ll try to, but it probably won’t end on time.” She explained, shrugging.  
“Man…” Ruby grumbled, putting her head back down in the same spot, “Today sucks…”  
“Are you going?” Garnet asked Pearl, finishing her food.  
“Yep.” Pearl nodded, “And I guess I’m going on the bus?”  
Garnet nodded, with a small smile. Pearl liked going on the bus with Garnet, it made her feel special.   
“I’m going to be all alone…” Ruby whined, ignoring Garnet’s conversation.   
“You’ll be fine without me for one game.” Sapphire smiled comfortingly, patting Ruby’s head.   
Pearl giggled quietly, and they all finished their lunches. Sapphire left for her doctors, and the school day ended. Pearl waited outside of the gym where Garnet was changing, and got on the bus with her. Coach made a small rant, and then gave up. She did, however, notice that Ruby was alone.  
“Ruby, where’s your girl? Are you two finally listening to me?” She asked jokingly.  
“No, she has a doctor’s appointment,” Ruby explained grudgingly, trudging to her seat by herself.   
“You’ll be fine.” Garnet rolled her eyes, although it was hidden beneath her sunglasses.   
Pearl and Garnet sat in their seats, with Pearl at the window seat. The two shared light conversation until the bus suddenly lurched down. The whole team gave a loud shriek of surprise as the bus suddenly stopped, and tilted to one side. Coach hopped out of the bus, and gave an angry yell.   
Flat tire. Apparently there was a large shard of glass that was hidden by a shadow and had pierced a huge hole in the tire. Coach called the other teams coach to tell them of their predicament, and cancel the game. She then called the school to get the assistant to bring another bus.   
“Girls,” Coach said, explaining the whole situation quickly, “We’ve got a flat tire. We’ve rescheduled the game for next Tuesday, and there’s going to be another bus to pick us up in about thirty minutes. Text your parents if they’re going to the game or need to pick you up at the school. Sorry about this.”  
Garnet drove herself to school, so she didn’t have to text anyone. Suddenly, she seemed to get an idea. She watched as Coach walked outside the bus to pick up another call, most likely from the assistant about her location.   
“Hey, Pearl,” She started, leaning in and whispering a question to Pearl. Pearl’s face brightened immediately, growing red as a tomato, but after a moment of staring at her hands, she nodded shyly. Garnet took her hand and got up, walking toward the back of the bus.   
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Ruby asked, looking up from her phone.   
“Taking advantage of a situation.” Garnet answered, not even turning to face Ruby.  
“What…?” Ruby mumbled, then shrugged and looked back to her phone to finish texting her mom.   
A couple minutes later, after she settled everything with her mom, she looked back to see exactly what Garnet had meant.   
“Hey, that’s for me and Sapphire only!” She shouted, staring wide-eyed at the ‘situation’ before her.

**Author's Note:**

> so ye get ready bc as of right now on my tumblr (its still ongoing) we're on chapter 89


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